Little Inspiration Bird

And this is how it all began, I had just visited the last day of our Farmers Market in fall of 2011. I first bought this bird from my favorite vendor, Eli Burnham, although she didn’t make this bird, it was handmade by Kelly Campbell, each bird is uniquely made, just like us. I had been admiring this little chubby bird all market season.  I would pick her up, look at her for a few moments and always put her right back down.  I had bought other jewels from Eli but this particular bird was a little more money than I typically would spend so always I would put her right back down feeling guilty to buy it just for me.  Since it happened to be the last day of the fall market I again picked up the little bird and admired her.  I thought, this is my last chance until next spring, maybe I will just do it, just buy her you know? I’m worth it, I waited all season, so I finally talked myself into buying her.  I wore her for a while with pride, I would see a glimpse of her in the mirror and would be reminded that I do deserve to wear a little sweet bird but then I began to think, other woman should be able to experience her too, other creative women, women who may not also typically treat themselves to a gift like this.  I have been posting pictures to a site called Flickr since September of 2009 and I have met so many good hearted and talented people because of this site.  I like to call it a place where likeminded people come to meet, a place I belong, a place I finally fit in completely. It took a good long while to build friendships but once I did, I felt so blessed to have had these people come into my life, people I wouldn’t know had it not been for this photo share site.  So in the spirit of giving, I sat one evening thinking about the people I had met and one person kept coming to mind and she wasn’t someone I had ever spoken to, I had never met her in person but somehow she was reaching me through her photos and it was her photo’s of birds that reminded me of this sweet bird.  Bev seemed to be fully happy and present in her life.  So I decided I would send my bird to her and I would then ask her to send it on to someone she felt inspired by and so on and so on.  The little bird of inspiration began her travels in November of 2011 and since then she has graced the necks of 9 woman including me, she has traveled so many miles across the map zig, zag back and forth.  She began here with me in Southern California and today she is in Montreal Canada on her 9th stop around this world.

Below are a few of the women who have worn her and photographed her.  I keep a group in flickr called “The Inspiration Bird” and this is where she is kept all in one spot.  My dream is that she will continue flying for a long time to come and maybe someday we can make a coffee table book of her travels, filled with stories of inspiration and friendship.  Never stop dreaming one never knows!

She began here with me in Southern California

I sent her to Bev in Dayton Ohio

Bev sent her to Sam in Virginia

Sam sent her to Lisa back to California but this time in the Bay Area

Lisa then sent her to Andrea in Kentucky

Andrea sent her to Daniella in Indonesia

Daniella sent her to Marta in Belgium

You can imagine how exciting this is for me.  To watch her travel the world and she has since made it to two other talented women since her stop in Belgium but I don’t have a portrait to share of Christina who is in Denmark, she does however have a wonderful blog you can visit at http://christinagreve.com/inspiration-bird/  Where she actually blogged about the bird for a bit.  I never realized she would reach such talent and women who inspire other women.  Then Christina sent her on to Eva in Montreal Canada and this is where she resides as we speak.  Eva also has a beautiful inspiring website http://www.evariccistudio.com/  You can see additional pictures of this little bird right here in this Flickr groups http://www.flickr.com/groups/1785562@N24/  I really hope to update again maybe at the end of this year.  It’s been a wonderful experiment that has gone better than I expected.  All the women she has reached have honored my wish by sending her on her way.  It’s also been a lesson of patience for me because there are times where it takes a while for her to reach her next destination but this too is okay because  there are no time limits to this experiment, just  instructions to pass along and place in my group when they feel the timing is right.  I also want to buy a map of the world and map out her flight, that will be fun.  This my friends is the post I promised to share about the Little Inspiration Bird.